Stedelijk Museum

The Stedelijk holds the principal Dutch collection of modern and contemporary art - around ninety thousand objects covering Malevich, Mondrian, De Stijl, CoBrA, Chagall, Warhol, Ryman, and a very strong design and applied art holding including Rietveld furniture and Dutch graphic design. The Malevich group is among the largest outside Russia, acquired in the 1950s and the subject of a long restitution dispute settled in 2008. Willem Sandberg, director from 1945 to 1962, made the museum's reputation and its typography, and his approach - white walls, cheap catalogues, contemporary work shown fast - shaped how European museums presented modern art. The 1895 building by Weissman was extended in 2012 by Benthem Crouwel with a seamless white composite volume on the Museumplein side, immediately nicknamed the badkuip, the bathtub, and disliked by a good share of the city.

History

The Stedelijk opened on 14 September 1895 in a Neo-Renaissance building by Adriaan Willem Weissman, built from 1891 largely with money left by Sophia Adriana de Bruyn. Willem Sandberg became curator in 1938 and director in 1945, and in 1958 he acquired a group of works by Kazimir Malevich; after a long renovation the museum reopened on 23 September 2012 with its new wing by Benthem Crouwel (Wikipedia, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam).

What you'll find

• A major Malevich group - among the largest holdings outside Russia.
• De Stijl and CoBrA - Mondrian, Rietveld and the postwar Dutch and Belgian painters.
• Sandberg's legacy - the presentation and typography that shaped European museums.
• The bathtub - the 2012 white composite extension, and the argument about it.

When to go

All year. Half a day.

Good to know

The permanent collection rotates and specific works may not be up - check if you are coming for something particular. Busy at weekends. Museumplein neighbours are the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh, so queues compound.

Nearby

The Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum are on the same square.

Key facts